Apple MacBook Air 15 Review: Best Laptop for Most People

In this year’s developer conference, this premium laptop brand unveiled its 15-inch Macbook Air, which was earlier available in 13-inch display size. The new Macbook Air has a variety of similar features, including an M2 chipset, like its predecessor.

Though Macbook Air 15 was launched with a fan-less design, due to the large chassis, it efficiently handles the head and delivers seamless performance for hours. With this new offering, the company aims to fill the gap between the Air and Pro series.

In this article, we have reviewed the base variant of the Apple Macbook Air 15-inch, which features 8GB of high-speed RAM and 256GB of SSD storage, with a retail price of Rs 1,34,900.

Apple MacBook Air 15 Review: Short Overview

Pros

• Larger and brighter 2K IPS LCD Liquid Retina Display
• Exceptional battery life, even on photo and video editing
• Better-sounding six-speaker sound system
• Modern-looking, premium, and sleek laptop design
• Larger trackpad and properly spaced keys

Cons

• Comparatively expensive
• Availability of a limited number of ports
• Sometimes outdoor brightness issue
• Laptop support only a single external display

Customer Ratings: 4.5/5

Price: Rs 1,34,900 for 8GB+256GB Variant

Apple MacBook Air 15-Inch Detailed Review: Everything You Need to Know About It!

Design

With larger display and body dimensions, Apple Macbook Air 15 doesn’t miss its look and feel. The laptop packs an ultra-premium design with a metallic body, which delivers a sturdy and durable feel. It measures 11.5mm in thickness and weighs less than 1.5 kg. This 15-inch Macbook Air has slim borders, a flat-screen, an extended row of keys, and a comparatively sleek profile.

The laptop looks very much similar to the 13-inch Macbook Air. However, it delivers an entirely different feel because of the larger display size. The 2-inch addition in the display may not sound so impressive, but when you open your Word document, work on a spreadsheet, or scroll a website, you can see the difference. With the 16:10 aspect ratio in the display, users can have an impressive multimedia experience.

Additionally, with the extended display and chassis area, you get a comparatively larger battery pack, enhanced stereos, a premium and larger trackpad, and a properly designed keypad. Like all other Macbooks, the smooth hinge lets you open this laptop efficiently.

Moreover, the laptop features a 1080p FaceTime webcam on the top center of the display area. It has two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports on the left-hand side, enabling users to share data as quickly as possible, and compatibility to support a single external monitor of up to 6K screen resolution.

The device packs a 3.5mm headphone jack and MagSafe 3 charging port. The only drawback with this Macbook Air is that it does not offer any SD card slot as these are reserved for high-end variants like the laptops of the Macbook Pro series.

Display

Macbook Air 15-inch laptop sports a 2K 15.3-inch IPS LCD Liquid Retina Display with a resolution of 2,880 x 1,864) and a peak brightness of up to 500 nits. Even though the all-new Macbook Air doesn’t feature an OLED or mini-LED display as available in the Macbook Pro series, it still delivers a pleasant experience with high-quality and realistic visuals.

Based on our experience, the display packs excellent contrast, maintains natural colors, and is bright enough to use even in outdoor areas. Whether you play games, watch horror movies, or a Netflix show, Apple’s Liquid Retina Display will offer a superior experience.

The multimedia experience gets further elevated with its all-new 6-speaker sound system, while the 13-inch variant sports only a 4-speaker sound system. These speakers are placed on the device's hinge and are louder while maintaining capable bass and proper sound separation.

With the capable color grade, contrast, and brightness level, editing high-resolution videos and phones becomes more enjoyable and convenient with this Apple laptop.

Performance

The Macbook Air 15-inch laptop runs on Apple’s M2 Silicon chipset. It may sound similar to the M2 chipset available in the Macbook Air 13-inch, but the 15-inch version is equipped with M2 SoC that comes mated with 8 CPU cores, 4 performance cores, and 4 efficiency cores, in addition to 10 GPU cores, making it slightly more powerful chipset than available in 13-inch variant.

The entry-level variant of the Air 15-inch comes with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD storage. Users can upgrade RAM up to 24GB, up to 16GB is recommended, and SSD storage by 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB.

In terms of performance, Apple’s M2 Silicon chipset can handle almost everything you throw into it. However, if you need to perform heavy graphical tasks, edit high-resolution videos, or need to render large files, the Macbook Pro series could be the ideal fit. Unless you require moderate graphical, editing, or coding tasks, the M2-powered Macbook Air 15-inch is a capable machine for you.

Even if you are a content creator required to produce quality content regularly, it has the capability to deliver a satisfactory user experience and handle most of the photo and video editing tasks you executive daily. Interestingly, the 15-inch Macbook Air is also promising for moderate gaming.

Battery

Apple has equipped the all-new Macbook Air 15-inch with a 66.5Wh battery pack and a 35W dual USB Type-C power adapter. Users have the option of 70W fast charging through compatible adapters. According to Apple, the new Macbook Air can deliver up to 15 hours of non-stop wireless web browsing and 18 hours of video playback time.

Undoubtedly, Apple laptops offer one of the best battery life in their segments, and the Macbook Air 15-inch is no exception. This laptop has impressive battery backup and can ensure seamless productivity during regular office hours. Even if you use it for around 9-to-10 hours a day, you can expect 40% of the battery remaining at the end of the day.

Conclusion

The 15-inch Macbook Air is a capable machine for coding, graphics, editing, and multimedia activities. Thanks to its M2 SoC, which handles almost every task efficiently and delivers an exceptional user experience, the laptop is reliable and capable.

With a six-speaker sound system, a 15-inch Liquid Retina Display, a modern-looking design, and long-lasting battery life, the new Macbook Air is suitable for anyone looking to buy a highly functional and properly tuned laptop for everyday use.

In short, if you want a premium laptop that can handle almost everything, a Macbook Air 15-inch is the perfect bet to consider right now.